As Homeless Shelter Population Rises, Advocates Push Mayor on Policies

The number of homeless people staying overnight in New York City shelters reached a dismal record of 53,615 in January, a new study has found, prompting advocates to press Mayor Bill de Blasio to follow through on promises to undo policies that they say drove the city’s homeless population to skyrocket in the first place.

Last year was the first time the number of homeless people sleeping each night in shelters exceeded 50,000. This year’s annual report by the Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit advocacy group, is worse: Newly homeless families entering the system increased by 12 percent; the number of homeless children sleeping in shelters rose by 8 percent, and single adults, 5 percent. The average stay for families with children stretched into 14.5 months, another record, according to the report, to be released Wednesday.

Mary Brosnahan, executive director of the coalition, said advocates had been cheered by Mr. de Blasio’s early moves on homelessness policy and his emphasis on building more affordable housing, but she added that the rising population in shelters demanded urgency from City Hall.

“The administration and all New Yorkers understand this really is the turning point,” Ms. Brosnahan said in an interview. “The focus on housing is going to turn the tide.”

Mr. de Blasio, for whom homelessness prevention was a focus from his earliest days in City Council, has close ties to and enjoys strong support from Ms. Brosnahan and other advocates. The Coalition for the Homeless, which has a history of fighting Mr. de Blasio’s predecessors, praised him in an open letter on its website after his election in November, and it applauds his administration’s early initiatives in the new report, even as it scathingly criticizes former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg for the current state of homelessness.

Mr. de Blasio’s mayoral campaign was also a client of BerlinRosen, a public affairs consulting firm that also represents the coalition and is now working on the campaign to enact a tax on high-income city residents to expand prekindergarten, the mayor’s top priority.

Still, the coalition’s 28-page report — filled with dozens of specific recommendations — signals that even an ardent ally will demand accountability.

Ms. Brosnahan said the coalition wanted to make sure that preventing homelessness remains a priority “against all the competing issues — charter schools and other hot topics.”

“There’s a lot going on in the city in any given day,” she said.

The first days of the administration were heartening for advocates for the homeless: As one of his first acts, Mr. de Blasio reversed a Bloomberg policy that prevented some homeless families from seeking emergency shelter when temperatures sink below freezing.

Last month, after a series of articles in The New York Times about sordid conditions at one city-owned shelter, the administration removed 400 children and their families from that and another shelter that inspectors repeatedly cited as unfit for children over the last decade.

Ms. Brosnahan said the coalition had been working closely with the de Blasio administration so far. After finishing the report after midnight Tuesday, she said, she shared it with Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, the deputy mayor for Health and Human Services. And on Thursday, the group is scheduled to meet with Gilbert Taylor, commissioner for homeless services.

A City Hall spokeswoman, Maibe Ponet, said Tuesday that the coalition’s report “highlights the need for additional housing resources for the homeless, a goal that the de Blasio administration shares with the coalition.”

She added, “We look forward to working with the coalition on implementing comprehensive policy solutions to lift up families and individuals facing crisis.”

That cooperation is a stark contrast to the strained relationship between the group and the Bloomberg administration. Early in Mr. Bloomberg’s first term, the coalition shared its annual report with his administration. “But then, that relationship deteriorated rather quickly,” Ms. Brosnahan said.

In 2005, the Bloomberg administration stopped providing homeless people with Section 8 rent vouchers to become tenants in federally funded public housing. The city instead turned to short-term rent subsidies, which Ms. Brosnahan said had largely failed, creating a cycle in which recipients of those subsidies wind up homeless again each time they run out.

The coalition is pushing for more permanent housing solutions, including a five-year rent subsidy. The coalition estimates that longer-term rent subsidies could cut the number of homeless families with children by 66 percent within four years.

The report also recommends helping at least 5,000 households each year by establishing a rental-assistance program funded by the city and state. And it recommends converting 3,000 low-income and moderate-income apartments, now used as short-term shelters, into affordable housing.

Ms. Brosnahan said that the report offered several potent ways to make dramatic change quickly.

“What we don’t need,” she said, “is a demonstration program and punting the ball to next year at this time.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A24 of the New York edition with the headline: As Homeless Shelter Population Rises, Advocates Push Mayor on Policies. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe